Administrative and Maintenance Tools - vBSEO Google/Yahoo Sitemap Generator

vBulletin Google Sitemaps by vBSEO v.2.5 - vBulletin 3.7.x
Download vB 3.8.x Compatible Version Here
Download vB 3.6.x Compatible Version Here
Download vB 3.5.x Compatible Version Here
Download vB 3.0.x Compatible Version Here

Note: Version 2.5 replaces all previous versions of the vBSEO Google/Yahoo Sitemap Generator, and now includes support for all the new URL types in vBulletin 3.8.x.

Overview
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Providing Google, Yahoo, Ask sitemaps is an essential step towards improving your forums.

The "vBSEO Google Sitemaps" plugin provides a solution that allows your forum to be indexed by the Google (and also Yahoo and Ask) search engines faster, more completely, more effectively, and with less bandwidth consumption.

The ultimate goal is to help you achieve more web traffic for your forum.

Originally Posted by Google's Description of GSM

https://services.google.com/inquiry/publishertools?hl=en_US
Google Sitemaps is an easy way for you to help improve your site?s representation in the Google index. It's a collaborative crawling system that enables you to communicate directly with Google. You get a smarter crawl because you can provide Google with specific information about all your web pages, such as when a page was last modified or how frequently it changes.

Note: This plugin is fully compliant with vBSEO 3.x version. The current version is vBSEO 3.2. However, if you are running vBSEO, please upgrade to vBSEO 3.2 or greater before installing.

Compatibility
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Fully compatible with:

• vBulletin 3.0.x, 3.5.x, 3.6.x, 3.7.x and 3.8.x
• vBulletin Blogs 1.0.x and 2.0.x *Optional
• vBSEO 2.x, 3.x *Optional

What does it do?
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• Auto-generates a Google XML sitemap for all of your specified forum URL types (including vBulletin Blog URLs).
• Auto-generates a Yahoo text sitemap for all of your specified forum URL types.
• Auto-notifies Google when a new sitemap is generated.
• Automatically sends you a summary of the sitemap generation via email each time it is created.
• Includes only publicly accessible forums and threads.
• Allows Google/Yahoo to find all of your forum URLs without having to spider the forum to find the links.
• Allows Google/Yahoo to find your forum URLs without having to account for query string and/or session ID information.
• Allows Google to give precedence to crawling your higher priority forum pages.
• Allows Google to give precedence to crawling your forum pages that change more frequently.
• Allows you to conserve bandwidth by more efficiently facilitating the crawling processes for GoogleBot and Yahoo Slurp.
• Is 100% compatible with the static CRUs (Content Relevant URLs) used by vBSEO-enabled forums.

How does it work?
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Whenever it is scheduled or invoked via the URL, this plugin will generate both the Google XML formatted and the Yahoo text formatted sitemaps. If you selected "Yes" to the Google auto-notification setting, Google will be notified each time the sitemap is generated. The Yahoo sitemap must be manually submitted to http://submit.search.yahoo.com/free/request/.

• Google Sitemap files are gzipped
• Forum and thread pages are listed with pagination (i.e. all pages for each forums/thread are included in the sitemap)
• Maximum Priority is set for Sticky threads.
• Optimization for sitemap generation on large forums.

Automated Reporting Tool
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The vBSEO Sitemap includes a report tool, allowing you to track your progress. To access your reports enter the following URL:

http://www.example.com/forums/vbseo_sitemap/

NOTE: Replace "http://www.example.com/forums/" with the full URL to your vB forum root.


You will be required to login by providing your "Sitemap Interface Access Password" from your vBSEO Sitemap settings in:

• vBulletin Admin CP (for 3.5.x/3.6.x/3.7.x/3.8.x users) OR
• vbseo_sitemap.php configuration file (for 3.0.x users) located in the vbseo_sitemap directory in your forum root.

Once you successfully login, you will be provided with a list of 'Useful Links'. Here are the 4 main links:

Show Reports List
The 'Show Reports List' link will display a report of each time your vBSEO Sitemap generator executed, including the (1) date, (2) run time, (3) total URLs included, and (4) and change in # of URLs included from the last generation.

Each vBSEO Sitemap generation record will include a (1) "View details" and (2) "Remove record" link. The "View Details" link shows more detailed information about the sitemap generated. The "Remove record" will permanently delete the record from your reports.

Show Sitemap Downloads Log
The 'Show Sitemap Downloads Log' link will display a report of each time your vBSEO Sitemap was downloaded by either a search engine (GoogleBot or Yahoo) or by another user agent (i.e. Web browser, etc.).

The report includes the (1) date, (2) name of sitemap file downloaded, (3) Bot, (4) IP address of the downloader, and the (5) User-agent.

Each vBSEO Sitemap download record will include a "Remove record" link which will permanently delete the record from your reports.

Run Sitemap Generator
The 'Run Sitemap Generator' link will automatically regenerate your Google and Yahoo sitemaps.

Your Forums Homepage
The 'Your Forums Homepage' link is a quick link back to your forum homepage.

Additional Links
Additional links to various other related SEO resources are also included.


Click "Install"
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Please click "Install" to show your support for this script.


Installation & Configuration for vB 3.5.x, 3.6.x, 3.7.x and 3.8.x as a Plugin
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Follow the installation/upgrade instructions provided in the docs/readme.html file.


Google Webmaster Accounts
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It is NOT required for you to have a Google Webmaster account to run the vBulletin Google Sitemaps plugin. If you decide to setup an account for testing purposes you can do so here:
http://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/login?sourceid=gsm&subid=us-et-about2


Copyright & Licensing

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• vBSEO Google Sitemaps plugin is copyright protected by Crawlability Inc.
• You are free to download and install this plugin on any vBulletin forum for which you hold a valid vB license.
• Unauthorized distribution of any code and/or documentation, whole or in part, included here is strictly prohibited.
• In addition, the following copyright notice must be maintained.

vBSEO(TM) ? 2005-2009 Crawlability, Inc.


Revision History
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02/22/2009 - Version 2.5 Released

NEW FEATURE: Blog tags URLs are included.
NEW FEATURE: Social Group Discussion URLs are included.
NEW FEATURE: Smart Priority applied for the following URL types

1. Show Post
2. Member Profiles
3. Forum Display
4. Poll Results
5. Blog Entries
6. Member Profile Albums
7. Social Groups
8. Social Groups Discussions
9. Social Group Pictures
10. Tags
11. Blog Tags

UPDATE: Compatible with vBulletin 3.8.x. Includes the following updated settings:

1. Priority Range - Show Post
2. Priority Range - Member Profiles
3. Priority Range - Forum Display
4. Priority Range - Poll Results
5. Priority Range - Show Thread
6. Priority Range - Blog Entries
7. Priority Range - Member Profile Albums
8. Priority Range - Social Groups
9. Priority Range - Social Group Pictures
10. Priority Range - Tags

Fix: Social Group Discussion database error is fixed.

Upgrade Instructions
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(1) Follow the installation/upgrade instructions provided in the docs/readme.html file.

(2) For versions of vBulletin 3.6.x only: Open "Schedule Manager" in the vBulletin Admin Control Panel (admincp); Remove existing scheduled task for Sitemap Generator if you have one.
Note: The new task will be automatically setup when you import the XML product file.

Other vBSEO Plugins

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• vBSEO - vBulletin Search Engine Optimization
  
• vBSEO Conditional Signatures for vBulletin

vBSEO Affiliate Program
============================

We welcome you to join the vBSEO Affiliate Program.

[TriMe]

Originally Posted by iojam

Fireproof,

you can check if mod_rewrite works on your site as described in http://www.vbseo.com/f77/how-check-i...my-site-21502/

I am having horrible problems trying to get the mod rewrite to move my sitemap_index.xml.gz to the forum root.

I tried the mod_rewrite check as stated above using this code

RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule testpage\.html http://www.google.com [R]

and didn't work so I contacted my host and he said that its written incorrectly. He put this code in instead, and it worked.

Options +FollowSymLinks
 
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /

RewriteRule ^testpage.html$ http://www.google.com [NC,L,R=307]

I was forwarded to google's site.


In the VBSEO instructions I'm supposed to put to put this in my .htaccess file to move the sitemap_index.xml.gz file:

RewriteRule ^((urllist|sitemap_).*\.(xml|txt)(\.gz)?)$ vbseo_sitemap/vbseo_getsitemap.php?sitemap=$1 [L]

but since the google code was written incorrectly for it to work on my site, maybe the other RewriteRule code is written incorrectly as well.

I can see sitemap_index.xml.gz in my /vbseo_sitemap/data/ folder (and the folder has 777 permissions) and the generator and pings all work.



I'm really frustrated and hope someone can help me out.

TriMe

[donnie_ogm]

Originally Posted by donnie_ogm

Hi guys,
I'm using this powerful mod but since my hoster have changed the server where I'm hosted the bot have stopped to download the sitemap of my site (for what I see in "Show Sitemap Downloads Log").

I've upload the file ".htacces" again to the root of my site cause I know that the hoster made some mistakes there while moving the site contents, but nothing more.
I'll wait to see the effect of this action but I'm not too confident in the fact that something will be solved.

Any other ideas? Please let me know.

Also the notification mail "vBSEO Google/Yahoo Sitemap Updated" have stopped to arrive.

Originally Posted by iojam

donnie_ogm,

try to set 0666 permissions for vbseo_sitemap/data/downloads.dat file.

Thanks for the answer,

After these two actions (.htacces file and 666 permission for for vbseo_sitemap/data/downloads.dat file) only yahoo bot started to download the sitemap again... while nothing happen for google_bot.

The notification e-mail still has some trouble, it doesn't arrive.

Any other idea?

[HasanSheriff]

Can someone hlp me with this...

1. Uploaded all files from upload folder to forum root
2. Changed permissions for /vbseo_sitemap/data/ for IIS_IUSRS to full controll
3. Imported .xml product
4. Configured using admincp
5. Logged into site with web admin www.WEBSITE.com/vbseo_sitemap/vbseo_sitemap/
6. Run Sitemap generator
7. Got error:

Warning: fopen(C:\inetpub\wwwroot\http://www.WEBSSITE.com\vbseo_sitema...temap_1.xml.gz) [function.fopen]: failed to open stream: Permission denied in C:\inetpub\wwwroot\http://www.WEBSITE.com\vbseo_sitemap..._functions.php on line 769

I'm kinds stuck. Appreciate your help.

[iojam]

TriMeб

you should use this .htaccess:

Options +FollowSymLinks
 RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^((urllist|sitemap_).*\.(xml|txt)(\.gz)?)$ vbseo_sitemap/vbseo_getsitemap.php?sitemap=$1 [L]

donnie_ogm,

try to resubmit sitemap to Google.


HasanSheriff,

looks like permissions were not set correctly, please re-check that write access is allowed for IUSR_*.

[Duncan]

Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 33554432 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 36318771 bytes) in /home/forum/public_html/vbseo_sitemap/vbseo_sitemap_functions.php on line 1298

How to fix?

[iojam]

Hello,

try to increase memory_limit setting in PHP configuration.

[popowich]

Hello,

I have had this product installed since the start of my forum, and then purchased and installed vBSEO today.

Am I supposed to uninstall this product after installing vBSEO to avoid a conflict?

-Raymond

[Lizard King]

Hello Raymond ,

You should have them both installed.

[Sherrie]

Hello,

Thank you for providing this, but is there a particular way that the extra urls text file is meant to be laid out? as I have been getting a mismatched tag error in sitemap 1 file, ever since adding urls to the extra-urls.txt. I couldn't find any reference on how this was to be done so I assumed that I just add them in sitemap format which is what I did. Before adding extra urls everything appeared to be working fine.

Thanks for your help.

[HasanSheriff]

Originally Posted by iojam

HasanSheriff,

looks like permissions were not set correctly, please re-check that write access is allowed for IUSR_*.

I have allowed "Full Controll" to the vbseo_sitemap folder, but no luck. Same error messages.
Anything else I could try?